BitCrusher

Parameters

Bit Depth — Number of bits used to represent each sample after crushing. CD audio is 16 bits; this knob lets you reduce that all the way down to 1 bit (square-wave territory). Lower values introduce quantization noise — the staircase distortion you hear in old samplers and consoles. 12 bits gives you SP-1200 vibes, 8 bits is gritty, 4 and below is full lo-fi destruction.

Rate Factor — Sample-rate divider. A factor of 4 means the effect outputs every 4th sample (the rest are held), as if the audio were running at a quarter of the real sample rate. Low values brighten and crisp the signal; high values introduce the dark, aliased character of vintage drum machines and 8-bit consoles. The label in the UI reads “SR Div”.

Dither — Adds low-level noise before quantization to mask quantization distortion. Counterintuitive but real: adding a tiny bit of hiss makes the bit reduction sound smoother and less harsh. At low bit_depth values dither softens the staircase artifacts; leave at 0 if you want the raw crushed sound, push up if quantization is too brittle.

Jitter — Random timing variation on the sample-and-hold rate reducer. Small amounts blur the artificial regularity of the digital artifacts; larger amounts add a noisy, unstable, broken-converter quality. Pairs with rate_factor — jitter has nothing to chew on if rate reduction is at 1.

Output Gain (dB) — Post-effect gain in dB. Bit reduction often pushes peaks around unpredictably, so use this to bring levels back into shape after crushing. The wide negative range (down to −24 dB) lets you tame heavily distorted output before it hits the next node.

Stereo Width — Spreads or narrows the stereo image after processing. 100% leaves the image intact, 0% collapses to mono, 200% over-spreads (useful for making thin lo-fi sources feel wider). Mono input through values above 100% won’t gain stereo width — there’s nothing to widen.

Dry/Wet — Equal-power blend between the original signal (0) and the crushed signal (1). At low values the crushed copy sits underneath the clean signal as added grit; at higher values it takes over. Like other dry/wet controls in K2K, this one is node-specific — the FX-slot version of BitCrusher leaves wet/dry to the mixer.

Additional controls

Pre Filter — Lowpass filter applied before the rate reducer. Filtering before downsampling removes the high frequencies that would otherwise alias into the audible range as gritty noise. On gives a cleaner, more controlled lo-fi character; off keeps the raw aliasing for that crunchier, more broken sound. The display next to the toggle shows the effective sample rate so you can match it to a target era (e.g. 22 kHz for 8-bit-game vibe).

About BitCrusher

Bit Crusher is the lo-fi destruction node — pairs bit_depth reduction (quantization staircase) with rate_factor sample-rate reduction (downsampling aliasing) to recreate the sound of vintage samplers and consoles. SP-1200 territory at 12 bits + ~26 kHz; Akai S612 / S900 at 12 bits + ~32 kHz; 8-bit consoles (NES, Atari) at 8 bits + ~22 kHz; full destruction at 4 bits and below. dither smooths the quantization edge when bit reduction would otherwise sound brittle; jitter adds broken-converter character to the rate reduction; pre_filter controls whether you want clean downsampling or raw aliasing artifacts. Compare with Native Distortion for amp-style harmonic distortion (different mechanism — clipping curve, not quantization) and Wavefolder for West Coast folding character. Bit Crusher is destructive in a uniquely digital way — the artifacts are quantization and aliasing, not analog clipping.

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